Providers of products and services generally seek to provide consumers with convenient and helpful ways to receive information about, to purchase, and to use the products and services. One well-known technique for distributing information and services to consumers is by employing human operators (e.g., customer service representatives) to communicate with the consumers by telephone. More recently, automated telephone applications have been introduced to provide information and services to consumers. For example, many organizations use telephone applications capable of automatically playing back audio recordings (e.g., menu choices) to callers. Other automated telephone applications have more complex functionality, including Interactive Voice Response (“IVR”) and touchtone recognition technologies. For example, many banking organizations provide customers with IVR and/or touchtone telephone access to automated banking services, which are commonly referred to as “touchtone teller” services.
Other existing telephone applications combine human operators with automated telephone applications. For example, many customer service applications are able to automatically recognize telephony signals (e.g., caller ID signals) and present information associated with the telephony signals to a customer service representative. Accordingly, a customer service representative can be prepared with information helpful for communicating with a caller, including the identification, account number, or other information associated with the caller.
However, existing telephone applications are generally limited to supporting only voice and touchtone telephony communications. For example, existing telephone applications are unable to present visual information to persons calling a customer service representative, and communications between callers and the customer service representative are typically limited to voice communications. Consequently, providers of information and services are restricted with respect to the type, format, and amount of information that can be conveniently presented to callers. For example, audio presentation of large amounts of information can be time consuming, and many callers tend to perceive lengthy voice messages to be burdensome. In particular, many existing telephone applications use prerecorded voice instructions (i.e., an automated operator) to guide callers through a series of menu choices. The automated operator audibly recites the menu choices to callers and recognizes caller selections, which are typically received in the form of voice or touchtone signals. Unfortunately, this process is often time consuming and frustrating for callers, especially when a significant number of menu choices is audibly recited. A caller may be forced to wait a substantial amount of time to listen to an audible recitation of multiple menu options before the option desired by the caller is finally recited.
These and other limitations of conventional automated telephone applications can easily frustrate callers to the point that customer satisfaction is compromised. Moreover, lengthy call times can preclude would-be callers from being able to access a telephone application. Patronage may even be lost because of delays and inconveniences associated with conventional telephone applications.